May 19, 2018 - JH: Mini-themes

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Date: May 19, 2018

Host: JH (Jan Hunsinger)
Feature: Mini-themes


Playlist

[Playing the #1 songs based on weeks at the top of the chart, from 1955 to 1975, in some years there were ties; songs with * were requests; all chart information comes from the Billboard Top 100 (for chart dates before/during July 1958) or Billboard Hot 100 (for chart dates during/after Aug 1958) unless otherwise noted]

6pm-7pm  

OPENING THEME:  Good Old Rock ‘n’ Roll – Cat Mother & the All-Night Newsboys (1969 - #29: produced by Jimi Hendrix)

Mining Songs Mini-Theme

Timothy - The Buoys (1971 - #17: one-hit wonder for the group from nearby Wilkes-Barre, Pa; Rupert Holmes of The Street People and the Pina Colada Song was their composer/arranger)


16 Tons - "Tennessee" Ernie Ford (1955 - #1: song was a huge smash for Ford, staying at #1 for 8 weeks and on the charts for 27)

New York Mining Disaster - The Bee Gees (1967 - #14: the first of 43 Hot 100 singles for the brothers Gibb)


Working in the Coal Mine - Lee Dorsey (1966 - #8: Dorsey was a prizefighter known as "Kid Chocolate" in the early 1950s)

Big Bad John - Jimmy Dean (1961 - #1: song spent 5 weeks at #1 and won Dean a Grammy for Country Song; we heard the risque version which ends: "At the bottom of this mine lays one hell of a man, Big John") 


*Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (1965 - #16: listener called in to say that he read a mis-heard lyric of this song inspired The Zombies to record "Tell Her No"; song is #50 on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs list)

*Poison Ivy - The Coasters (1959 - #7:big hit for "The Clown Princes of Rock" written by Lieber and Stoller; Jerry Lieber said that the song is a metaphor for an STD)

Rain Songs Mini-Theme

Buy for Me the Rain - Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1967 - #45: song from their first album that peaked on May 6 of 1967)

Don't Let the Rain Fall Down on Me - The Critters (1967 - #39: one of only two songs to make the Top 40 by th group out of Plainfield, NJ)


I Can Turn Off the Rain - The Grass Roots (1971 - UC: song was on the flip side of "Sooner or Later")

Rainy Jane - Davy Jones (1971 - #52: post-Monkees single for Jones; song was co-written by Neil Sedaka)


45 Corner

Rain - The Beatles (1966 - #23: the "B" side of "Paperback Writer" and the first song to feature backward tape loops; we heard the Odeon label 45 which was made in Germany)


Medicine Man - The Buchanan Brothers  (1969 - #22: the Buchanan Brothers were really Dennis Minogue ("Terry Cashman") and Thomas Picardo ("Tommy West"))

Fire - Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968 - #2: Brown was born in Whitby, England; the band was known for its psychedelic rock and Brown's outlandish performances and is still touring in 2018)


I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight? - Boyce and Hart (1967 - #8: Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote and produced for the Monkees but had this hit for themselves)

I Will Always Think About You - New Colony Six (1968 - #22: hit for the soft-rock group out of Chicago)


Birthday Calendar

May 13: 
Ritchie Valens (Richard Steven Valenzuela) born 1941 
Mary Wells - born 1943
Stevie Wonder (68)

May 14:
Bobby Darin (Walden Robert Cassotto) born 1936
Derek "Lek" Lekenby (Herman's Hermits guitarist) born 1943
Jack Bruce (Cream bassist) born 1943

May 15:
Eddy Arnold - born 1918
Trini Lopez (81)
Mike Oldfield (65)

May 16: 
Barbara Lee (The Chiffons) born 1947

May 17:
Malcolm Hale (Spanky and Our Gang guitarist) born 1941

May 18:
Big Joe Turner (Joseph Vernon Turner, Jr) born 1911
Perry Como (Pierino Ronald Como) born 1912
Albert Hammond (74)
Rick Wakeman (Yes keyboardist) (69)

May 19:
Pete Townsend (73)
Jerry Hyman (Blood, Sweat, & Tears trombonist) (71)

Fast Freight - Ritchie Valens (UC - 1959: posthumous release featuring Valens on Stratocaster guitar)


Two Lovers - Mary Wells (1962 - #7: Wells was the first artist to have a Top 10 and #1 single for Motown records)

A Place in the Sun - Stevie Wonder (1966 - #9: song was written by Ronald Miller and Bryan Wells)


Things - Bobby Darin (1962 - #3: Darin was with Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel on the night of his assassination in 1968)

A Must to Avoid - Herman's Hermits (1965 - #8: song was written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who also wrote "Secret Agent Man" and "Eve of Destruction")

Badge - Cream (1969 - #60: song was co-written by Eric Clapton and George Harrison; Clapton mis-read Harrison's note of "Bridge" on the sheet music and said, "What's Badge"?, giving the song its title)

The Cattle Call - Eddy Arnold (1955 - #69: the first pop chart record for "The Tennessee Plowboy")


If I Had a Hammer - Trini Lopez (1963 - #3: one of 13 Hot 100 chart singles for the folk singer who was also in the movie "The Dirty Dozen")

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield (1974 - #7: theme song for the movie "The Exorcist"; album version was 49 minutes long)


I Have a Boyfriend - The Chiffons (1963 - #36: song that was playing on Dallas radio station KLIF that was interrupted with the bulletin that President John F. Kennedy had been shot)

Like to Get to Know You - Spanky and Our Gang (1968 - #17: Hale was the musical genius for the group and his death led to them breaking up)


Honey Hush - Big Joe Turner (1959 - #53: influential blues shouter from Kansas City)

It's A Good Day - Perry Como (1955 - UC: song was co-written by Peggy Lee in 1946; Como's version was used in the 1999 movie "Blast From the Past")

I'm a Train - Albert Hammond (1974 - #37: Hammond has enjoyed great success as a songwriter, writing "Little Arrows" for Leapy Lee and "The Air That I Breathe" for the Hollies, among others)


Morning Has Broken - Cat Stevens (1972 - #6: Rick Wakeman played the distinctive piano part on the song)

The Kids Are Alright - The Who (1966 - #85: would later be used for the title for a documentary of the band in 1979)

God Bless the Child - Blood, Sweat, & Tears (1968 - Jerry Hyman provided the trombone solo for the group's cover of the classic song)

 Grass Songs Mini-Theme

Grazing in the Grass - Friends of Distinction (1969 - #3:  song was an instrumental hit for Hugh Masekela in 1968; Friends band member Harry Elston added the lyrics)


Green Green Grass of Home - Tom Jones (1966 - #11: Jones recorded the song after hearing Jerry Lee Lewis's 1965 recording)


Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You - Wilson Pickett (1971 - #17: song was a million seller for 'Wicked Pickett')

And the Grass Won't Pay No Mind - Mark Lindsay (1970 - #44: cover of a Neil Diamond song by the former Paul Revere and the Raiders frontman)



The Other Man's Grass Grass Is Always Greener - Petula Clark (1967 - #31: another Clark hit by writer Tony Hatch)

Green Grass - Gary Lewis and the Playboys (1966 - #8: Gary now lives in nearby Rochester and makes occasional appearances there)

*Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf (1970 - #3: original single was 5:58 in length, but it was trimmed to 3:33)


*Have I the Right? - The Honeycombs (1964 - #5: part of the British Invasion, the group featured a rarity of the time - a female drummer)

Shape Songs Mini-theme:

Shapes of Things - Max Frost and the Troopers (1968 - #22: group only existed in the studio, created for the movie "Wild in the Streets")

Love's Lines, Angles and Rhymes - 5th Dimension (1971 - #19:  title track from the 1971 LP)


Shapes of Things - The Yardbirds (1966 - #11: Jeff Beck used guitar feedback on the song, which was co-written by Keith Relf; when the Yardbirds broke up Relf went on to form Renaissance, group which appeared at the Hangar Theater on May 12)


Bend Me, Shape Me - The American Breed (1967 - #5: song was originally recorded by The Outsiders)

Can't Get Enough of Your Love - Barry White (1974 - #1: White wrote, recorded, and produced this big hit)


CLOSING THEME:  Sleepwalk – Santo & Johnny (1959, #1 for two weeks)

Host Next Week: (5/26) - Kim Vaughn (KV).

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